Odd Object Training.....

Slowly but surely, it seems the age of bosus, swiss balls, and so called function training you may see at your local Bally’s is finally starting to die. THANK GOD. People are waking up and realizing that this so called functional training isn’t living up to the hype. So you may be asking yourself, what’s next? To get strong, lean, and functional, you must squat, deadlift, press, pull, and carry weight.

What form of training will you find all of these qualities? You sure as hell won’t find it in some class using a step-up and some pink dumbbells. You will find all this in strength training, Strongman to be exact. You might ask, Why can’t I just use dumbbells/barbells and how does this make me any stronger or bigger?

I’m not saying drop barbells and dumbbells from your training regimen. I’m suggesting adding Strongman Training into your training routine because it will compliment your lifting. What makes Strongman Training effective is that is changes the dynamic of the lift to stimulate new muscle recruitment and motor pathways. Since you train your muscles in a similar manner with odd object training, you can expect a high level carryover into your other lifts. In the famous book Dinosaur Training, the author, Brooks Kubik states, you feel as sore as you do because the bags (sandbags) worked your body in ways you could not approach with a barbell alone. You got into the muscle areas you normally don’t work. You worked the heck out of the stabilizers..

You may ask for scientific evidence to support these claims. Unfortunately, I don’t have any. I have World Class Strength Coaches who have used these concepts for decades. Research is just now confirming what the Great Paul Anderson knew about training and implemented ages ago.

Using odd objects in training isn’t reserved for just the old time athletes. Allen Hedrick, the head strength coach at the Air Force Academy, has been using this type of training for years. He has written and lectured on using odd objects often in the form of water filled kegs to increase performance and decrease the risk of athletic injuries.

But, applying the concept of specificity, it makes sense that training with a fluid resistance is a more sport-specific method of training as compared to lifting exclusively with a static resistance because in most situations, athletes encounter a dynamic resistance (in the form of an opponent) as compared to the static resistance. Further, because the active fluid resistance enhances the need for stability and control, this type of training may reduce the opportunity for injury because of improved joint stability.

This sounds good for an athlete, but how would someone who just wants to become big and strong benefit from using odd objects? First we need to define odd objects. Many different types of odd objects can be used such as logs, stones, sandbags, and kegs. For the purposes of this write up, we’ll stick with sandbags and kegs. These two implements are incredibly versatile and very inexpensive. They don’t take up a lot of space so they can be used by those lifters who are restricted to the room they have for training. Water-filled kegs and loosely filled sandbags have a lot of movement about them. When lifting either of them, you must adjust to the constant motion. Sandbags will constantly change shape as you lift them, and kegs will have weight shifts, especially as they gain speed. Both provide a different stimulus and are very effective.

In the classic days of strength athletes, lifters were a collection of strongmen, bodybuilders, and weightlifters. It was unusual to see a lifter classified as only one type of athlete because the various disciplines seem to complement each other well. We should learn from what these amazing athletes were able to attain, and use their methods to the fullest potential. For example, lifting kegs and sandbags is perfect for those lifters who want to increase arm size and poundage. Doing so can improve grip and hand strength and greatly contribute to deadlifting, benching, pull ups, and pressing more weight. It can also improve arm and forearm size as the famous George Jowett showed us. Jowett displayed 19-inch arms without doing any bicep curls.

Lifters who want strong back and shoulder muscles would find keg and sandbag lifting the perfect remedy. When trying to shoulder, zercher, press, or clean odd objects all the muscles of the upper body are used. Lifting heavy versions of these odd objects is not possible without heavily involving the whole body.

The infamous core also receives some of the most effective stimulus with strongman training. Many people have said they have a strong core, but when asked to demonstrate their strength, they fail miserably. Sucking in your abs while balancing on a Swiss-ball or lying on the floor does not get the job done. However, sandbag and keg lifting are brutally effective because as you try to lift the odd object, you must try to maintain proper posture.

To train the components of trunk strength, heavy, slow, and explosive movements can be used. Sandbags have long been a favorite training tool of wrestlers and combative athletes. In John Jesse’s famous book, Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, he states,

The use of heavy sandbags and their large circumference forces the lifter to do his lifting with a round back instead of the traditional straight back lifting with a barbell. It is this type of lifting that truly develops a strong back. It develops the back and side muscles in movements that are identical to the lifting and pulling movements of wrestling.

Sold? Good! Let’s learn how to implement odd objects into your training, specifically sandbags and kegs. You could use sandbags and kegs exclusively for one or two workouts a week, and utilize them in classic exercises like shouldering, clean and press, and Zercher squatting,

Even though using odd objects exclusively is an option, I prefer to integrate them into barbell and dumbbell lifting programs so that I can take advantage of the benefits of both lifting styles and achieve a more complete training program.

References:
Kubik, Brooks (1996) Dinosaur training: Lost secrets of strength and development.
Jesse, John (1974) Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, Athletic Press.

Again Im surprised that this thread hasnt got any posts.
Let me tell a short true story. Where I work a lot of people stay and work until they retire, the working conditions arent to bad and the pay is good too. Because they are all getting older I hear a lot of them complaining that some of the work makes their muscles hurt. I usually sugest to them that they should start a work out program at home. (They sometimes ask me because I never seem to have any of the pains that they have and I am an electrician and they want me to fix it, make their job easier) Working out at home to improve your performance at work isnt that hard and it involves lifting odd objects. Your grip can be improved or kept about the same by haveing a tennis ball that you can spend a few minutes a day squeezing it (carpal tunnel). Take an empty one gallon plastic milk jug and fill it with water, one gallon of water weighs about 8.5 pounds, do about 10 sets of 10 reps arm curls a day with that. (elbow and shoulder pain) Empty the trash at home, the average bag of trash weighs about 5 to 10 pounds. (back and shoulders) Unfortunately we lift odd objects everyday all the time and never realize it until we get that sharp pain and wonder what happened. Your body likes to lift about 80% of what it possibly can lift and save the other 20% for the fight or flight response. (Power lifters know about this). If you want to get stronger you have to make your body lift more than the 80% so that it will change that amount to the new 80%. When that happens you have gotten stronger. If on the other hand you usually lift objects that are in the 65 to 70% range your body will make that the new 80%. (Muscle atrophy) Your body is in a constant state of change thats often called a part of the ageing process, there isnt any defense against that but you can slow it down. I guess I kinda went over board on that but ergonomics and ageing are two subjects that all of us should think about. How you lift and how long you can lift, how many years, in the gym are important if you want to maintain a healthy life style.